You’re right though, it’s an important distinction between a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory. Bots on Reddit are pushing for the term to be used as one and the same. Almost every major event in the history of humanity happened because two or more people “conspired” together to achieve a result. Yet, there is a push to make the word conspiracy associated with loonies. The CIA was really smart to start that push after the JFK assassination, but you know what? When you have thousands and thousands of studies on human psychology, many of which were done illegally and unethically, of course you will know how to manipulate humanity, so we shouldn’t give them too much credit.
You’re right though, it’s an important distinction between a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory. Bots on Reddit are pushing for the term to be used as one and the same. Almost every major event in the history of humanity happened because two or more people “conspired” together to achieve a result. Yet, there is a push to make the word conspiracy associated with loonies. The CIA was really smart to start that push after the JFK assassination, but you know what? When you have thousands and thousands of studies on human psychology, many of which were done illegally and unethically, of course you will know how to manipulate humanity, so we shouldn’t give them too much credit.